The Flowers I Stole From Her Garden
by AlaskaHolmes90786
Summary: Gray Fullbuster, a stoic man with a bad past, has a habit of stealing flowers from this beautiful garden whenever he visits his step-mother, Ur's, grave. What happens when Juvia Lockser, a beautiful and rather lonely woman and the owner of the garden, catches his theft and insists on meeting the "lucky girl" for whom he steals her flowers? [Gruvia] [Modern AU]


Gray Fullbuster was a calm and chill person. In fact, he was a "cool bean" as his best friend and kinda future sister-in-law, Lucy Heartfilia (soon to be Dragneel), called him. He was stoic and collected. No one could make him cry, neither was he very vocal about his problems.

Lucy and Erza Scarlet, his other best friend, went as far as accusing that he had problems with displaying emotions and affection.

' _As if.'_ Was all he thought in response, scoffing in his mind. Not that he said it aloud. Lucy and Erza were one of the scariest people he knew in his life along with a few others. No way would he utter something stupid and then get brutally murdered for it by _them._ He was not as stupid as his bestest friend and rival, Natsu Dragneel, blabbering around idiotic nonsense and then sorely regretting it.

But as a way to show that he cared, he did do small things. After all, he did care. It was just that he never could express it properly after his mother-like figure's death. His 2 personal psychoanalysts (who else? Lucy and Erza) think that maybe he was still traumatized by her death, thinking it was his fault and that he'd hurt anyone who he loved too much. Gray wouldn't lie, many times he did feel like that.

So, just to pay his old woman a visit, he'd head to the cemetery every once in 2 weeks.

And, instead of buying flowers from a flower shop, he'd steal it from someone's beautiful garden whose house happened to be on the way there.

It was a big, beautiful garden, honestly. As mentioned before, Gray wasn't the sentimental types. So _naturally_ he didn't like anything flowery and flowers related, too.

But, man, he had to admit, this garden was _something._

There were many poppies and daisies and bellflowers. There were rows and rows of hydrangeas and peonies and hibiscusses. Name any flower and you might find it there. In addition to those flowers, there were irises, violets, roses, chrysanthemums, water lilies in a small pond and delphinium (a plant he did not know about but was so smitten by its beauty that he took it to Ur's grave multiple times and asked his know-it-all best friend, Levy McGarden, the name of it). It also had tall and shady pines and eucalyptuses. Moreover, it was a haven for animals. There were squirrels, badgers, cats, dogs, butterflies and even parrots.

Really, this enclosed piece of land would give any botanist a botanical boner.

And Gray thought that he was an expert in stealing. It was easy according to him; enter by jumping over the low-rickety garden door, walk on the small, stone pathway, steal a few flowers from here and there and get out the same way.

He had never encountered the owner and he always was on guard, noting her (he always thought the owner as her, call him a prejudiced cunt if you'd like to) presence.

So, Gray, was so totally not expecting to get caught one fine morning of spring.

And he can proudly say, grinning from ear to ear, that getting caught by _her_ was the singular best thing that ever happened to him ever in his life.

* * *

 **Bright Early Morning of 9th of April:**

Gray walked down the long, winding lane to Ur's grave, whistling out a tune. The birds were chirping and there was slight wind due to which the leaves were moving and rustling harmoniously. It smelled fresh and green everywhere and there were squirrels chasing each other, butterflies moving from one flower to another. It was one of those days were you felt like the world was in perfect harmony, everything was aligning perfectly. It was the kind of day where you wake up happy and felt like nothing and no one could ruin your mood today. It was the typical "be happy, stay happy" day.

And Gray liked it a lot.

So he continued to hum and whistle down the road, enjoying his unusual happiness, when he reached the first stop.

The Garden.

Somehow, Gray felt more happy than normal to see the garden. It smelled amazing, looked amazing. It was amazing, period. Gray would've liked to have a garden such as this himself, but he wasn't exactly a pro with plants. Or with many living creatures, in fact. Only those who could handle his sarcasm and a little emotionless behaviour could be close to him. In a way he was glad, he had very little number of close friends, but the ones he had were Gray's family.

Gray jumped over the rickety wooden gate which looked right at home, walked on the stone path which he had memorized by now while smelling the air and caressing some plant lovingly and debated under his breath about the flowers he should choose this time.

When he had gathered few hibiscusses, daisies, jasmines and marigolds and had caressed and petted a litter of kittens, too, he turned around to head to the cemetery. And had a heart attack.

There stood a beautiful woman with wavy azure blue hair as bright as the clear sky above him and sparkling cerulean blue eyes filled to brim with humor and amusement. Her hands were on her hips and her weight was leaned upon her left foot. Her lips curled up in a sly smile. Her long, figure fitting ocean blue dress fluttered in the wind and she looked stunning. Gods, this woman was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen and heaven knows he had seen many. Lucy, Erza, Mira, Lisanna, Cana, Levy, all of his female best friends were described to be gorgeous but this woman here was the most beautiful of them all.

And something about the way she smiled at him and something about the way she stood told him that she had seen everything he was doing. That is, steal the flowers.

And he had a very bad feeling that she was the one that owned the garden.

"What," The woman spoke in a very mature and clear, yet feminine voice, "Do you think you are doing?" Her tone wasn't serious. At least, she didn't sound like she was going to accuse him of theft, vandalism and private property intrusion. Hopefully, he wasn't imagining her joking tone.

"Uhmmmm, I don't know." He lied awkwardly.

She stepped closer to him, the cats circling around her feet and meowing in recognition, and wagged a finger in front of his nose. "Are you the gentlemen who steals Juvia's beloved flowers always?"

Wait? What? Is this not her place or...is she referring to herself in third person? And instead of asking that or replying to her question he dumbly replied, "Those cats are extremely fond of you, madam." Momentarily, both the woman and he himself were shocked by his sudden twist in topics.

He awkwardly rubbed his neck, ducking his head down to hide his warming face that wasn't cooling down any sooner, and muttered an apology.

Then an unexpected noise came from the woman. A series of cute and addicting giggles, he realized, as he looked up to see the woman's eyes twinkling with laughter and a hand clamping her mouth shut.

"Well, they love Juvia and so does their mom. You seem to like them a lot." She replied. And Gray laughed, realizing that she did indeed talk in third person. "Yes, I used to be more of a dog person when I was kid but then I shared a room with my idiot best friend who absolutely loves his cat who he named Happy and treated him like a third person sharing the house. Since then, I have become more of a cat person."

"That's fantastic, really! Juvia always thought dogs were overrated. They are cute, of course, but have got nothing on cats! They are extra big in size, bark a lot, can look frightening and drool so much!" Juvia complained, her hands moving to emphasize her points.

Gray grinned and nodded in agreement. And Juvia looked down and smiled.

"Juvia. Juvia's name is Juvia Locker. And Juvia knows her way of introduction is rather weird but this is how Juvia always spoke. You don't seem to be much surprised." Juvia told him, looking up from under her thick azure lashes.

Gray suddenly felt his cheeks start going pink and he looked away bashfully. He had never blushed so much in the span of 5 minutes! What the hell was the matter with him today? It was the weather, he decided. It definitely was the weather.

"I know a lot people with unique quirks. I have a best friend and she can kick the most powerful kicks in the history of powerful kicks, I have a best friend who drools over strawberry cakes one minute and then goes to random sword shipping sprees- and yes, those swords are very real- and I have another best friend- my roomie that I mentioned- and he has plethora of very weird quirks. He's a pyro, he has terrible motion sickness, he has pink hair and he talks to his cat." Gray listed off. Oh God, he was rambling. He definitely was.

"Eeeee!" He heard a high pitched squeak from Juvia. He looked at her to find her blushing tomato red, her eyes as big as saucer, stammering and pointing towards him.

Gray looked down to find that he had unbuttoned his light coat and now was almost through his shirt buttons, exposing his sculpted and admittedly, nicely built chest. Shit, he was _too_ nervous.

"Uh, I guess this the part where you see my weird quirk." Gray replied, awkward and embarrassed beyond words. "I remove my clothing when I am sad, angry, nervous, scared or thinking. Actually, to think about it, I probably remove my clothes for everything. I like to stay shirtless most of the times."

"Basically, you strip?" She questioned, her words blunt and straightforward but her face still red.

"Uhm, that's one way to put it." Gray said, rubbing his neck while smiling sheepishly.

And, here again, she laughed. She really likes to laugh.

"You really like to laugh." Gray said out aloud. And then he wanted to kick himself. What the hell was wrong with him? Usually, he was the classic 'disinterested, distant, hot, handsome' guy! Girls were mad behind him in high school. Him and his idiot friends, Natsu, Gajeel, Loke and Laxus.

But right now, as of this moment, Gray was being more brash and reckless with his words than Natsu had ever been. The jerk was rubbing off on him!

"Yes, Juvia had a really lonely past and there wasn't much laughter around her. Juvia found out that she actually liked the sound of laughter as she didn't hear it often in her life. Thus, Juvia made it a point to laugh whenever Juvia felt like it." She explained, a sad smile on her face and her hand clasping together.

At that moment, Gray couldn't relate more to anyone in this world than Juvia. She addressed her sad past the same way he did- in a sad yet accepted and resigned way. Of course, _if_ he ever addressed the past to others as he didn't do it a lot of times in his life.

Gray just stood there, thinking of how to comfort her while rubbing the back of his neck. At this point, Gray thought why was he even bothering to remove it from its position. He had never been good with crying or reminiscing people since he hardly did it himself and was not used to doing it. Gray's friends knew he cared and they also knew that he wasn't good in comforting and they accepted his ways.

His confusion must have shown on his face as she laughed her tinkling laugh again while shaking her head. "Wait a minute. Let Juvia straighten a few things in the house then you can show Juvia the lucky girl. And yeah, as much as Juvia appreciates your love for her flowers, please don't be such a miser when it comes to money. Juvia loves her flowers on her plants as Juvia spends so much time and effort on them." She said, eyes twinkling while giggling.

' _God, does this woman ever stop laughing or smiling or giggling? Why is she so damn attractive and beautiful and, well, happy? Is happiness even a thing people are attracted to? Am I attracted to happy people? What am I? Happyosexual? Yikes, that sounds like I like Natsu's cat.'_ Gray thought, his mind shooting rapid fire questions when things finally registered in his brain.

She was coming along with him to see this "lucky girl". Wait, what lucky girl is she talking about? Gray then realized that she thought that he stole her flowers to see his girlfriend or something.

Gray started clearing the misunderstanding when she gave him a stern look and reprimanded him, "Nuh uh! Juvia is seeing her. Juvia has the right to! Juvia'll stand behind a pillar or act as a stranger but she shall see the woman who is worthy of her flowers!" At that, she puffed out her chest with a dignified look and strode to her front door. Unlocking it, she went inside, leaving Gray to question what kind of an interesting woman did he stumble upon.

* * *

After 15 minutes of lingering in her garden and debating with himself whether to respectfully tell her to not accompany him or just let her be because, admittedly, he liked being around her. At least he had liked the few minutes he had talked with her.

"Hey!" She greeted, as she came out, locking the front door. She walked up to him, a little shyly if he even dared to say, and gave him a cute smile. She had changed her dress, he noticed. Again it was a beautiful shade of blue. She now donned a midnight blue dress which reached just a little bit above her thighs, with full sleeves and gold trimmings. She wore a bit bulky but nice brown boots which reached a little below her knees and a black cut sleeves overcoat. Her long, wavy hair was tied in a high ponytail with wavy bangs framing her face. He actually liked how she was not really revealing even though she had very curvy figure.

"Hope she won't mind Juvia coming along." She said and Gray shook his head. How could he tell her that the woman she is about to visit _couldn't_ mind anything even if she wanted to? "Let's go." He muttered while gesturing her forward.

She went a step forward and tried stuffing her keys inside a pocket only to realize that she had none. Her steps faltered and Gray just was about to crash into her.

"Excuse Juvia!" She squealed when she felt him right behind her.

She again took a deliberate step back and turned around to face him, and muttered while blushing, "Would you mind if Juvia asked you to keep her keys in your pocket?"

He grinned and said, "Of course!" And pocketed her keys when he noticed her keychain.

"Fairy Tail?" He asked, face alight with pleasant surprise.

"Oh they are Juvia's favourite band." Juvia replied in response. Gray grinned the biggest he could, linked his arm with hers causing her to welp and forced her to walk side-by-side with him.

"I practically love Fairy Tail!" Gray responded enthusiastically. At that, her eyes became wide and she returned his grin.

"Oh really? Have you been to any concert?" She questioned excitedly.

"Oh I did! Backstage VIP passes, too! Cost me and my roomie a fortune but we bought it and we met them. They were awesome even though they think my name is 'Gary' because of my stupid as hell roomie." Gray muttered the last part out, still bitter about it while Lucy just laughed hard enough to shed a few tears and Erza, Levy and Wendy shared amused now, when FT music plays in public, Natsu makes sure to call him Gary loudly in public.

Juvia cocked her head to the side and asked, "What's your name, then?"

Gray replied, "Gray, Gray Fullbuster."

At that she snorted and Gray held back a blush. Well, amidst her elegant laughter and giggling and mature voice, he did not think she was really the snorting types. But it admittedly suited her a lot.

"What? Why did you snort?" Gray interrogated, trying to look angry but failing miserably. By now, their arms weren't linked but they walked close enough to each other so that their arms and shoulders brushed frequently. And on this beautiful spring morning, walking to the cemetery with Juvia was really pleasing. He wondered what Ur would think of her. Natsu was the only one who visited the actual grave. Lucy and Erza had stayed outside, not wanting to step inside due to their own bad incidents with death. Natsu was the only rock he had back then beside Ur's grave. He complained about Natsu a lot, but in reality, Natsu was maybe the one who supported him the most and has seen him at his lowest, followed by Erza and Lucy.

"'Gray, Gray Fullbuster.'" She mimicked, trying to copy his facial expressions. "What are you? James Bond?" She questioned.

Gray laughed out loud at that, holding his stomach. Honestly, she had a good sense of humor.

"That's the way I tell my name." He offered as an explanation. "Fair enough." She answered back, shrugging.

After that, we walked together in silence, walking past the small village square.

"Can I buy you something?" He offered as he didn't know if she had her breakfast yet or not. She shook her head but smiled to show her gratitude.

"Why do you live in such a far off place?" He asked out of curiosity. Her house was far away from the village and the outskirts of the city. The only reason Gray walked from the outskirts to the cemetery was because he was quite the walker and runner and he liked the path. And, of course, he couldn't forget the garden could he. Plus, taxis were expensive.

"Juvia liked the location. Juvia always wanted a big garden of her own. And admittedly, as Juvia was alone her entire life, Juvia was scared to shift somewhere with too much people." She admitted. "But Juvia has quite a few friends now. Juvia works as a waitress and as a swim coach 2 days every week. Juvia has friends from work, no one close though."

"What about you, Gray-sama?" She asked rather suddenly, and admittedly the 'sama' through him off the tracks.

"Uh please don't add 'sama' and I work as a policeman. I have quite a lot of friends but I have a bunch of best friends who mean the world to me." Gray said rather stoically.

Juvia giggled and said, "Juvia bets it's your roomie who you call an idiot."

"Nay! He is a number one jerk! I don't like that brash idiot at all!" Gray sputtered. ' _Damn she was perceptive!'_ He thought.

"Whatever Gray-sama says!" She giggled again, teasing him in a sing-song voice, her blue hair swishing side to side as she moved her head, and Gray wondered how she wasn't close to anybody with so much kindness and brightness in her. Hell, he knew a list of guys he would've been head over heels for her if she was in his friends circle.

Gray grinned and they continued walking. After a few minutes, despite Juvia's protest, Gray bought them both 2 donuts each. His was vanilla marble with sprinkles and vanilla with chocolate stripes and hers was chocolate with marshmallows and blue marble.

When they had walked out of the village, he saw Juvia grow aware and confused. After a minute of walking towards the direction of cemetery, she questioned, trying to sound like she's joking but confusion and concern were evident, "Juvia seriously hopes that you are a good man and aren't going to kidnap Juvia and bury her body in the cemetery that's about to come up."

"You'll see, Juvia." He said, his voice growing rather serious and somber. He saw her shiver a little bit and removed his light coat to lightly drape it over her. He could practically hear Lucy gushing in her head " _So romantic! Way to go, Gray!"_

Juvia turned her head and looked at him, a mix of emotions in her cerulean beautiful eyes. He patted her back and smiled back reassuringly. And she smiled back, looking ahead and breathing in the beautiful fresh air.

After another round of quite walk, Gray reached the gates of the cemetery. Juvia saw him leading her down here and eyed the cemetery since it had come into view a minute ago.

The cemetery was filled with tombstones, still slightly depressing even though the weather was absolutely gorgeous. The most big and beautiful tombstone could be seen from the gates itself. It was shaped as an angel. An angel which was the replica of Lucy's face. The face of Layla Heartfilia, her mother. This was the reason why Lucy couldn't enter the cemetery the night his half sister, Meredy Milkovich, died of a terminal disease. Lucy was still fighting her demons. 5 rows in front of Layla Heartfilia's grave were the graves of Simon, Millianna and Sho, Erza's childhood friends who passed away in a drink and drive car accident. Even the brave Erza couldn't bring it in her to go in.

And 2 rows behind was his mother like figure's gravestone. It wasn't as grand as Lucy's mother but it was still better looking than most of the others.

"This," Juvia whispered, "Isn't a very great place to come for a date, Gray sama."

He, without replying, entered the graveyard. He didn't realize that while walking down the lanes, and while muttering Simon, Sho, Millianna and Auntie Layla a quick hi, he had clasped Juvia's hand uncomfortably tightly.

If Juvia felt pain, she didn't say. Instead, she held on and squeezed his fingers every now and then.

Finally, he reached the grave he had come to visit and just stood before it, silently saying hi to his mom.

Juvia kneeled down and read the headstone. He had read it enough times already, trying to comprehend years earlier how he could convince himself that his mom was dead.

"Ur Milkovich." She breathed out.

"She had adopted me. When I was 6. My parents were murdered. Murdered by this gang called Deliora. No one knows why they did it, no one could catch them ever. No one even knew why _them_ , why specifically them. I didn't take kindly to her at first. I protested, called her names, screamed on her face that I'd be better off when I get away from her. I was very bad in accepting the reality and I still have problems accepting my feelings. Caused a lot of fights between us, but she never gave up on me. Loved me, fed me, clothed me, played with me, talked to me. I had a bratty yet good elder half-brother named Lyon because of her and the most adorable half-sister named Meredy. Both were adopted. Meredy died 6 years ago due to terminal illness. She adopted Lyon, Meredy and me because she had lost her daughter, Ultear." He explained even though she didn't ask him to, his happy mood nowhere to be found.

"How?" Was all Juvia asked.

"She was a policewoman." He told, shrugging. "Got murdered. Leader of Deliora shot her 5 times."

A sound came from Juvia's direction and he directed his emotionless gaze towards her face. The soil beneath her was growing wet due to dripping water. She looked up at him, her gaze fierce, tears dripping down at an alarming rate.

"Don't." She grinded out and Gray was moved by the sheer amount of emotion in her expression and that one word. "Don't say it so emotionlessly, so dead."

"I am over it." Gray whispered back, closing his eyes, wishing that he could disappear from there. He hated when people pitied him for what happened to him. But she wasn't pitying, no. She was crying the same tears he had cried many years ago.

Suddenly, a small yet firm frame crashed into him, hugging him. He stumbled back a little but caught himself before he fell, wrapping an arm around her.

After what felt like a pleasent hour or so later, she released herself from the embrace, wiping her tears away. "Sorry, Juvia can get very emotional." She muttered.

He pulled her right into his arms again, muttering a "I don't mind" in her ear. And he honestly didn't. For once in his life, he didn't mind emotional at all. If it was this woman he could get, then he would deal with all the emotional drama in the world.

Juvia gently took the bouquet of flowers which she had taken the liberty to beautifully arrange and wrap and placed it on the tomb.

"These are the flowers Gray-sama steals from Juvia's garden everyday, ma'am. Juvia was right, these flowers _are_ for a very special woman." She gently said, smiling.

And he at that moment realized, that if Ur would've been alive and he would've brought Juvia to her as his girlfriend, his mother would've been over the moon. And he, he decided at that moment, that he wanted her to be the person to spend his entire life with.

"Juvia," He murmured, taking her arm gently and making her face him and look at him. She stared back curiously, if not a little red from being this close to him. "Can we go back to your garden? I need to steal some more flowers. I want to ask this extremely beautiful blue haired and blue eyed, funny woman to a date. You think you can help? Note, the delphiniums are my favourite." He whispered, looking straight into her eyes and wrapping an arm around her waist.

Her face went complete red and she averted her gaze. Gray was just about to prepare himself for a polite yet devastating rejection when she said slowly, "I think the girl might like that. Maybe the girl's favourite flower is hibiscus? Why not make a small bouquet of delphinium and hibiscuses?"

Gray grinned widely at those words and let out an uncharacteristic woop, saying, "Aye aye, Captain!"

Who knew that the flowers he stole from her garden would lead him to his love?


End file.
